I seem to have fallen into a cycle with this game. I’ll log on every day so I don’t miss my daily reward. Send/receive friend gifts, summon a unit if I receive enough friend gifts (the units usually aren’t very good). Next I’ll grab the daily reward and check the daily deals. If it’s a good one, I’ll buy it. Then I’ll usually spend 100 lapis for 20k gil, which I’ll use to purchase the daily metal cactuar deal for experience. I’ll level up my characters (usually using the “friend” summon unit, too) and see if I can awaken anyone. The items I’m usually missing for that are Sacred Crystals and Heaven Ash. So it’s off to the Chamber of Awakening to pharm those items. I was doing the Shadow of the Empire Vortex mission, too, but the PRO one kicked my ass. I made it to the fourth boss, but not even the ultima spell was doing me much good, and he killed even my higher level companion character (the one who could cast the ultima spell) with one turn. Besides the vortex mission, I do the other stuff while watching either Mass Effect 3 or Bob’s Burgers on Kisscartoon.io (they changed the extension from .me).

I finally pharmed enough white magicite to fulfill that mission in Lydira (?), Now I need to defeat find the Ice Megacrysts, defeat three Hill Gigas’ and now that I did the magicite mission, defeat 10 hungers (whatever the hell those are). I may try to continue the story tonight. I opened up the Lanzelt Ruins, and I’m pretty sure something interesting is going to happen there.

I’m on Chapter 4 of this! I powered through Chapters 2 and 3 in one night for each. One of the things I like about this game are the little notes you find hidden within the puzzle boxes. The story they reveal is quite…dark.

Still no robo-pilot, and I want to say the town Alis and crew found themselves in was a bit of a dead end or they didn’t have an item they needed? I can’t quite recall, but I remember there was some issue.

Shepherd always seems to be the bearer of bad news 😦 During a mission where she ran into Samara, quite a few asari lost their lives (it wasn’t the justicar’s fault). One of them wanted left a message for her paramour, which Shepherd delivered. I guess that’s one thing ME gets right about war: people die. *spoiler* The krogan poet was rough. *end spoiler* I remember him from the second game.

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy – I don’t know how I didn’t have this in my backlog before. A conversation with Mr. Panda on Twitter reminded me to add it! Hm, it looks like it’s just for the 3DS. I must obtain that system soon.

Total Games in Backlog: 104
Change from Last Week: +2

Games Added to Watch List: 2

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain – I remembered how much I liked watching my husband play this series, but I don’t quite remember what games he’s played, so I figured I’d start with this one. I know I really enjoyed some of the later ones that were on newer systems.

A Rose in Twilight – I originally added this to my backlog per Cheap Boss Attack’s weekly Freakin’ Weekend post. It seems completely up my alley: dark, gothic, roses, yassss, but I switched it to watching since CBA generously provided a link to an LP.

Total Games on Watch List: 24
Change from Last Week: 2

Games Purchased This Week: 0

Miscellaneous

So for my birthday, my parents-in-law generously gave me a $50 Amazon gift card. Since I spent my Christmas Amazon “money” on books and a portable computer desk and since I now have my own PS3, I figured I’d spend this GC on video games, but which one to buy? That’s where you all come in. I’m going to post a poll and which game receives the most votes in a week’s time will be the one I purchase next!

30 thoughts on “The State of the Gamer: 5/9/17”

I would vote for Persona 5, since the series is incredible. Final Fantasy XV is also quite good, as is NieR: Automata. You can’t really go wrong with any of those three. Horizon didn’t really grab me right away, but like I mentioned before, I think going into it right after spending 70 hours in Breath of the Wild wasn’t the smartest idea. But I know you love RPGs, particularly turn-based ones, so Persona 5 may be right up your alley. Puzzle games aren’t really my thing, although I loved the Portal games–so The Talos Principle is the least interesting of the bunch.

I *just* finished Cosmic Star Heroine on PS4, which is a retro throwback 16-bit RPG inspired by Chrono Trigger and Phantasy Star. It was radical and I loved it and it reminded me so much of growing up in the 90s, playing SNES RPGs during the summer months. Not sure where else it’s available, but it’s a short 12-hour RPG (perfect for us busyfolk) and generously priced at $15.

I knew you’d throw your vote for P5, and I only actually thought about FFXV again because a friend of mine accidentally let loose a major spoiler haha. Though…I kind of guessed it was going to happen, since I’m pretty familiar with the paradigms Squeenix uses by now.

You had the same issue with Horizon that I had after reading The Da Vinci Code then seeing the movie right afterwards. You have certain expectations that aren’t met. I’ve seen the movie more times afterwards, and it’s perfectly serviceable. I think you were so blown away by Zelda that nothing could’ve held up to it. I would’ve included BOTW if I had a Switch and if I had a 3DS there’d be a few for that, too.

I just came across Talos one day, and I didn’t even remember how. I liked the cover, and though I haven’t played Portal yet, I’m still very fond of it.

In that case, I’d go for Horizon: Zero Dawn because it’s the open-world game that the gaming world needed (in my opinion haha), but I’d also recommend Nier: Automata. I’ve heard it’s worth playing through twice in order to really get through all of the symbolism and things, and clocking in around 20 hours I think that’s a fair request, considering I think you play as a different character the second time around (if I remember right). I haven’t played it yet, but even though it’s not usually the visual/gameplay theme I go for, it’s high up on my list of “to-play” games!

I haven’t played any of the Persona games, but I hear they’re great and 5 is supposed to be fantastic. But my vote is for either HZD or Nier!

With the gift card you’ve got, I’d spend it on either Horizon Zero Dawn or Nier: Automata. I haven’t played Nier myself, but it’s likely to be my next purchase as I’ve heard nothing but great things. Of course, it’s all down to what you’re in to!

Personally, I’d leave Final Fantasy XV for now. I managed to pick that up on eBay for just over £15 ($19 or so?), which was a bargain! So ideally, unless you’re buying more than one game, spend your gift card on something a little more expensive and get FFXV a little cheaper elsewhere. Plus, if you’ve managed to avoid the hype-train for this long already, another month or two wont hurt.

Regardless of what you eventually decide upon, each one will be sure to consume your entire being for a very long time.

Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius sounds like any other mobile game. Fun for a while, then you get into a cycle of just logging for rewards before eventually giving up. That’s what happened to me with Fire Emblem Heroes.

Persona 5 got my vote by the way. Just finished the fifth dungeon. It’s a contender for my game of the year.

I’ve watched as my boyfriend played Horizon: Zero Dawn and it looks amazinggg! He really enjoyed it, as has everyone else I’ve talked to who has played it. 🙂
Ooh, and I can’t wait to hear what you think of Unravel when you play it. It looks great!

I just got HZD the other day! And for some reason WP decided your comment and another one you sent were spam. WTH WP? That happens from time to time, and I don’t know why. It’s why I check my spam filter just in case.

It happens sometimes. I think they crank up the spam filter too high lol. That happened with me and Yahoo actually. I wasn’t getting any of my blog sub emails, and I started to get suspicious after a few days, because I get quite a few normally. They’d changed their filters to pick it up, so I had to go through spam and make sure I marked everything from WP as *not* spam.

Not yet! I’m not sure where it’s going to fall in my backlog conquering, but since I have it in my possession, I’d say it’s pretty high up on the list 🙂

That epic Twitter conversation, haha! Yes, I hope you enjoy Theatrhythm. It’s one of my favorite 3DS games, period. It’s also on iOS, but the definitive version is Curtain Call on 3DS. I bought every single DLC on it… which was very, very expensive. But that should tell you how much I enjoyed the game and getting new Final Fantasy and related Square Enix game songs on it. If it was ported to Switch, I’d do it all over again!